Star Wars' controversial Darth Vader recast has divided fans

A controversial recast of the iconic Star Wars villain, Darth Vader, has been a hot topic of discussion with fans lately.

Well, when we say recast, technically, it’s still the voice of the late, great James Earl Jones, but considering that the beloved actor passed away in 2024, AI was used to replicate his instantly recognisable voice as a companion in the popular free-to-play shooter Fortnite.

It’s worth noting that James Earl Jones signed-off for his voice to be replicated in Star Wars projects to the financial gain of the actor and his family.

Check out the Fortnite Galactic Battle trailer below!

That being said, the latest use of James Earl Jones’ voice as Darth Vader as an AI companion has not gone down as well as some may have hoped. This version of Darth Vader will not only be at your side in Fortnite, but it will also respond when you talk to it.

However, Darth Vader has come under fire after Fortnite gamers found a way for it to respond not only with swear words but also racial slurs, which meant that a patch had to be deployed ASAP.

“I don’t think James Earl Jones could’ve anticipated the kind of topic this turned out to be when he consented to this,” exclaimed Redditor MetalJrock. “Unfortunately, he is the one actor we do know who actually wanted his voice to live on through AI.”

“I feel like any older actor who thinks this is a good thing probably needs to hear the AI parodies people make with voices online,” replied ramonzer0. “When those voices say some truly ridiculous things, that should be enough reason to give these actors a pause in terms of signing their voices away.”

“You'd think a vulgarity filter would be one of the first things you put in before release, but here we are,” said jjman95, making a very valid point.

Hopefully, in future, when Epic Games implements AI companions, extra precautions will be taken to avoid this oversight, but I don’t have high hopes of that happening.

Fortnite is playable on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.